Help

Claims guidance

Grant claim evidence

This information details the evidence required to support the eligible project costs identified in the contract and approved for your project.

About this information

A claim typically requires evidence of expenditure and sometimes evidence of payment of the expenditure. The sections below include examples of evidence.

Email your evidence according to the scheduled dates detailed on your claim form and contract. Please complete the grants claim form and customer claim summary sheet and submit along with all the necessary backup evidence to contractclaims@scotent.co.uk

For contracts approved from 1 April 2018, we will no longer accept invoices or receipts for £100 or less.

If you have any questions about your claim, please contact your Account Manager, Specialist, Business Gateway Adviser or the Contract Specialist named in your contract.

Eligible costs and associated evidence requirements

Projectised staff time, temporary specialists (on payroll) and graduates (on payroll)

Copy of payslip(s) showing salary costs and monthly/weekly salary amount. For projectised staff costs only, the number of days worked in the period should be detailed in Section 2 on the claim form.
Only gross pay is an eligible salary cost. Other payments such as staff commission, bonuses, salary increases and company employer costs are ineligible for grant support and must not be included in the claim.

Consultancy (ERDF funded) and sub-contract costs (ERDF funded)

An invoice from the supplier detailing the services provided to you and the cost of the services, including net costs and VAT costs.
A bank statement (either issued by post to you or downloaded from your online account) for a bank account in the company name that matches the company named in the agreement. The statement should clearly show the bank name and logo, bank sort code and account number, payment dates and the amounts paid to the relevant payees.
We cannot accept:
- an online transaction listing
- an extract or filtered view
- instructions to pay or future dated payments
Where payment is made as part of a BACs payment and the bank statement only shows a larger bulk payment, you must also provide the corresponding BACs list. The BACS list must:
- be clearly identifiable as being from your payment system; and
- clearly show the individual payment amount to the relevant payee; the overall total BACs sum and the payment date; and show an overall total sum and payment date on the transaction list which matches the BACs payment on the bank statement.
Where you have paid by cheque, you must provide a photocopy of the signed cheque, so it can be matched to the corresponding transaction on the bank statement via the cheque number.

Materials

Invoice from supplier(s) detailing the materials provided to you and the costs of the materials, including net costs and VAT costs.
No single invoice or receipt of less than £100 can be included in your claim.

International airfares, international accommodation, international exhibitions and trade fairs, and capital costs

Invoice from supplier(s) detailing the services and/or materials provided to you and the cost of the services and/or materials, including net costs and VAT costs.

Evidence of payment

All claims for consultancy costs or sub-contract costs must be accompanied by evidence of payment, such as a bank statement, or Bacs statement, which clearly shows that you have paid out the amount you are claiming for.

Company bank statement

Any transactions not relevant to your claim can be redacted (obscured or scored through).

Payment evidence must come from your bank and must be from a bank account in the company’s name. For your claim to be paid, a bank statement must:

Be a formal statement (either a pdf version or digital printout of the online bank statement or a scanned copy of a paper bank statement), not simply a transaction listing. Photographic images of original documents and screenshots of documents are acceptable provided they are authentic, not in a format they can be tampered with, and clearly display the information required to match the criteria
Clearly show the bank name and logo
Clearly show the company's name, bank sort code and account number (the company name should match the company named in the Scottish Enterprise contract)
Clearly show relevant transaction dates, amounts and payees that correspond to other evidence, such as invoices, salary payments or receipts.

We cannot accept:

An online transaction listing
An extract or filtered view
Instructions to pay or future dated payments
A form that can be altered (e.g.an Excel spreadsheet)

Bank statement example

Bacs transaction list

If the costs you are claiming appear as part of a single bulk Bacs payment on your bank statement, then you must submit a Bacs transaction list, as well as a bank statement as evidence of payment (the bank evidence itself is NOT sufficient payment evidence). Any transactions not relevant to your claim can be redacted (obscured or scored through).

The Bacs transaction list must:

Be clearly identifiable as coming from your payment system
Clearly show individual payees, payment amounts and dates. The total payment sum and payment date on the transaction list must match the amount and date that appears on your bank statement. Any transactions not relevant to your claim can be redacted (obscured or scored through).

Bacs example

Company cheque

For a cheque payment to be fully compliant, you must:

Submit a photocopy or scan of the signed cheque, with the cheque number, payee's name and the amount clearly visible
Submit a corresponding bank statement (meeting the bank statement evidence requirements) showing the cheque being paid

Please note: For contracts approved from 1 April 2018, we will no longer accept cheques for £100 or less.

Company cheque example

Evidence of expenditure

Invoices (supplier/consultant costs)

Invoices from a supplier or consultant must clearly show:

A summary and breakdown of the services provided to you
The cost of the service provided with net cost, VAT, and gross cost detailed (VAT is an ineligible cost so your grant will be based on net costs)
The invoices must be dated on or after the date which we confirm to you by e-mail that we have received your signed acceptance of the grant offer and before the contract completion date. They must also be paid within this timeframe

Please note: For contracts approved from 1 April 2018, we will no longer accept invoices or receipts for £100 or less.

Invoice example

Salaries

Please note: Grant contributions will be calculated as a percentage, based on the employee’s salary at the outset of the project, for the duration of the agreement.

For Temporary Specialists and Graduates (on payroll), should the individual be appointed at a lesser salary, then this will result in grant being reduced to the percentage of the lesser salary.

Full-time staff

For staff working on approved projects, you must submit:

An employee job description (this will have been submitted at the application stage)
Individual wage/pay slips, that show the employee name, company name, gross salary and the salary period

For Projectised staff time, the number of days worked should be detailed in Section 2 of the claim form.

Please note: you can only claim for gross/basic pay; other payments, such as staff commission, overtime or bonuses, cannot be included.

Please note: we cannot pay for employer’s overheads (e.g. national insurance or pension) unless you are claiming for a R&D project, in which case you may be eligible to claim a capped percentage of these costs. Further advice can be sought from your SE Innovation Specialist.

Wage slip example

International travel and accommodation

Only those costs agreed as eligible (as set out in your contract) can be claimed.

Invoices, receipts or tickets (for example, for flights or hotel stay) must clearly show:

The date of booking (the booking confirmation can be provided as evidence for this)
The cost, destination or location and the dates of travel or stay
The name of the passenger, guest